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Thoughts on Recent Final Fantasy 7 Remake News And Reactions

All screenshots here I took from Youtube – don’t use them as a gauge of how the game actually looks or the video even, watch the video yourself.

During the Playstation Experience, Square Enix showed off a new trailer about 2 minutes long – showcasing a lot more of Midgar and how you’ll be able to explore it, the combat system, some of the voice acting, and also some very familiar story elements to anyone who played the original. How this ended up raising hell all over the internet as some huge negative I didn’t understand until I remembered most fans of Final Fantasy are also the types who somehow think FF6 isn’t one of the most pathetically written piles of shit imaginable, think FF13 is bad because it’s linear (every FF is fucking linear), and think the only game post 6 that was good was…ugh…12, and of course shitposters who hate FF7 in the first place and just want to use this as an excuse to shit on it some more. They also tend to love them some Nintendo.

So is it really any surprise these people are mad that the remake isn’t identical to the original? No, yet it still baffles me that they can’t see the hypocrisy, stupidity, and objective ignorance in their complaints. After seeing plenty of assumptions based on absolutely nothing and even someone like Jeff Gerstmann who usually knows SO much about video games and their history and current state in all genres and around the world, seemingly react in the most incredibly stupid ways – like pretending the concept of a multi-part JRPG is some super surprising never-done-before thing or even complaining that the parts “will be full length games” saying they’d prefer Telltale episode lengths – I couldn’t help but need to write something. I’ve even seen people bitching directly about “they’re taking this too far, even adding new sections to Midgar” in unironic complaints. Like, what? How is that a bad thing whatsoever? Hell, there are people who sit there talking about this game and saying it’s still one of the most massive games they’ve ever seen and how it’s crazy how many different types of places you see. Certainly when it first game out it had a lot of content and was expansive compared to other things available…but it’s not that time anymore, the game is a mid-length JRPG with an average amount of settings and overall content. This just goes to show, again, how little people talking about this actually know about JRPGs or even FF7 outside of nostalgia. So fucking many of the complaints about this game are clearly coming from a camp very similar to that of the feminists who bitch about games they have no intention of ever playing to begin with not catering to them enough regardless, it’s the same shit and just as stupid.

Continuing on, when they announced this back at E3, these same types of people started a wave of anger about how “it’ll be nothing but a shitty and lazy cashgrab by square jewnix!!!!” and yet now that it’s been disproved these people are mad that it ISN’T that. Instead, Square Enix is giving us a re-imagining of this story, these characters, and this world – probably the original story idea that they had to cut so much out of back in the day that they’ve openly talked about in the past. This is likely the original and true vision of Final Fantasy 7 with the story beats you loved (yes, you people who pretend the cross dressing part was some amazing thing, probably having not actually played it yourself and realizing it was just a shitty side quest, that part is confirmed to be back) along with plenty of new ones and new twists, a world you CAN ACTUALLY EXPLORE and it takes more than 30 seconds to do unlike any fucking town in the entirety of the original, and combat that is fresh for the series (alongside FFXV) to give the game an even newer feel.

This is not an HD Remaster, and that should be bringing joyous glee to absolutely EVERY fan of the original game. We’ve all played FF7 a thousand times, we all own multiple version of it – hell, I just bought one for the PS4 to play it yet again even though I still have my original release copy around somewhere from launch day. Why the fuck would I want the exact same thing that I’ve played a billion times, own five times over, and even have ON my PS4 already? Why would ANYONE? You would literally be buying yet another copy of the same exact game you already own – even, very likely, on the same console you already own it on. If they refused to sell the original game any longer, I’d understand, but it’s right there on PSN for every Sony system, on Steam, on discs for the original Playstation, on download sites for people who emulate, it’s even something you can get on any fucking modern cellphone. There’s absolutely nothing that would make them simply doing an HD Remaster an acceptable decision on their part, and yet people are bitching that it’s not exactly that – when just prior they were bitching that it would end up just being that.

It’s been officially stated that the game will be released in multiple parts – somehow this completely confounded everyone and made them, yet again, flip their shit claiming that this was a new way of ‘jewing’ out the customers and being lazy as shit. “JEW TACTICS!!!!”, “THE JEWS AT SE ARE GIVING US EPISODIC BULLSHIT WHAT THE FUCK”, and of course some complaint about Telltale ruining gaming somehow. Sorry, but have any of you dumb fucks ever played JRPGs in your life? So many of them are released in parts telling one full story. Ever heard of, I don’t know – Xenosaga? Star Ocean even if after 2 it’s complete shit? .Hack? Atelier which has almost always been created as trilogies? Tales of Xillia? Trails as a whole, which currently has 8 titles telling the same one continuous story? Ar Tonelico? Those godawful Neptunia games? Maybe as FF fans you’ve heard of Final Fantasy X and X-2 or Final Fantasy 13, 13-2, and 13-LR? What the fuck do you think those are? JRPGS RELEASED IN MULTIPLE FUCKING PARTS TELLING ONE CONTINUOUS STORY. And they’re far from the only GAMES that do that, let alone not the only JRPGs like that.

Complaining about this is not a valid issue whatsoever with what information we have now – most of which PROVES THE COMPLAINTS WRONG or just isn’t enough to base any guesses on. And hell, when did everything with sequels become “episodic”? This is the stupidest fucking buzzword, and nobody from SE actually used that term whatsoever last I checked, only “journos” writing about it. SE only said there will be “multiple parts” not fucking “episodes”. Just because you already know the full story doesn’t magically make this any different from every other JRPG or, hell, any other game at all that has more than one title in the same story, so why is it suddenly completely unacceptable to you that this does what so many others have always done? Yes, you as someone who KNOWS THIS STORY SO WELL will feel awkward about it a bit, but if this was a new game completely to you there’d be nothing there that would bother you – this is another situation where the only negative is a misconception based on nostalgia and absolutely nothing else. Nobody complains when stories are cut into parts, but when a story they already know is cut into parts they somehow believe it ruins it when it’s actually common practice and only feels different because it’s something you’re already familiar with, yet if they took a game of multiple parts and made it one flowing game people would bitch just the same.

That’s another problem, these people bitch and moan pretty often based on nothing but pure conjecture. We don’t know the price or content amount per title, if it’s equal to about the same as those other games I listed – which are all games that release each “part” as something totally worthy of it’s own release – or if the price is lower for a smaller amount of content, there’s no valid complaint here. Could things end up completely fucked and they do end up abusing this for financial purposes, SURE. Is there any reason to assume that’s the case right now aside “MUH CORPORATE OVERLORDS ARE EVIL JEWS!!!!”? No, there’s absolutely ZERO evidence to support that, especially in a medium (let alone this specific genre)where full stories being told over multiple parts is pretty much the norm. Actually, making this even stupider – they’ve stated the games will be full-length each part, meaning based on the information we DO have there is absolutely NO excuse for complaining unless we’re being lied to – which we have no ACTUAL evidence supporting that we are aside conspiracy theory type bullshit about the suits and the jews being at it again, which means there’s no VALID basis for any complaint in this department currently. Hell, this sounds great if we’ll truly get several 60+ hour games telling the story of FF7 and letting us re-discover this world in far more detail and depth than ever before.

Love the over the top sparks and particle effects in the whole combat sequence of the trailer.

The combat is now action-oriented, much like FFXV (I don’t play Kingdom Hearts so I’m not sure if that’s similar, but I’ve heard it kind of is) only with some better aspects. While the original ATB combat was fine, I can’t say I want to play some beautiful looking modern game where my characters that aren’t anime-as-fuck (Atelier, for example, it works well in) are just standing there bouncing up and down waiting for their turn. Plus, ATB was always aimed at developing an action style system, yet back in the day they weren’t able to get one working that they were happy with, so they did that. This isn’t opinion, if you do your research the entirety of the original FF7 release was made up of the bare minimum due to technical and financial limitations. They are trying to make the original vision, that includes this combat which we’ve seen them building up towards SINCE THE ORIGINAL 7 RELEASE and all the way up to 15 where it’s finally been fully realized.

This is also one of those things where I’ve seen nothing but hypocritical opinions on – wherein people praise this exact style of combat and action games in general, yet when it’s implemented in FF7 it’s now complete shit magically. Really? Do you think this game is somehow bad now because you can play as Barret and shoot the shit out of dudes? Or play as a cute ninja girl throwing giant Kunai while dodging gunfire? This really makes the game SHIT? You truly played FF7 for the combat system ONLY and are THAT dedicated and loving of that specific ATB style that you hate every single other JRPG without turn-based combat and standing in a line? There’s no way any human being can be as mad as people are acting over “the combat is different” in something that is NOT an HD Remaster unless they truly loved FF7 purely 100% for that combat system and jack shit else. Worse, these complainers ignore the fact that the staff has CLEARLY STATED “the ATB system and limit breaks will return and be important in combat”. ATB isn’t even gone, it’s just revamped, probably (again) similar to XV. Plus, there’s still VERY CLEARLY menus and such in the video so it isn’t fucking devil may cry or something.

On top of all that, WE’RE GOING TO GET TO PLAY AS ANY OF THE PARTY MEMBERS. How is that not a great fucking thing to EVERYONE? More importantly – how is that a “bad” thing? Hell, it even has on-the-fly swapping MID COMBAT. Not even FFXV has party swapping (unless they finally fixed this, but last I remember they never held up to that promise) and this is with characters everyone who is a fan of the game loves and should be excited to control for once more directly.

Shootin’ dudes as Barret

The story is not going to be identical, another confirmed thing that people are shitting their brains out over. They never said they were removing any elements of the story, only adding more, yet people take this as “THEY’RE REMOVING EVERYTHING!”. Again, this is a REMAKE not a REMASTER, of course they’re going to change, edit, and add old and new story beats throughout the game. It’s not meant to be a lazy slapped together “FF7 but prettier”, it’s meant to be a new yet familiar journey. Strangely enough they’ve talked only about old story beats being here again and shown nothing BUT identical scenes from the original game, including the first boss, the train escape, and even some conversations that you might remember seeing the characters have. Absolutely nothing new story-wise has been shown, it’s all the same stuff we’ve known from the very first day this game released originally. The idea that they’ll be DRASTICALLY changing the story is another of those issues that not only has no evidence leading to assume that, but only has proof that they ARE NOT doing it, making complaints even more fucking stupid than in the other areas.

I also sure as fuck hope they don’t include an overworld – but boy oh boy will people ever shit themselves if that goes missing. Overworlds were created ENTIRELY – not “mostly” not “somewhat” – 100% made entirely due to technical restrictions. They were never something anyone creating games wanted to have, it was something they were forced to have. This is not the 90s, there’s no longer a need to force shitty game content purely because “well we can’t actually make it good” which is all that was going on back then. I’ve legitimately seen idiots saying that without the over world there can’t be chocobos – are you shitting me, dude? I guess there were none in 10, 10-2, 11, 12, 13, 13-2, 13-LR, 14, or 15 then, no idea what I was dreaming up when I was sure I was riding a big yellow chicken horse in those games. Or maybe they had chocobos and this is just more proof that people bitching about this game DON’T ACTUALLY KNOW SHIT.

A familiar face to fans.

Am I saying Square Enix can do no wrong? Of fucking course not, they’re plenty terrible like every other major company in the game industry. However, right now anyone that isn’t so busy pretending they’re 12 even in terms of how they act in public can tell there is NOT ENOUGH INFORMATION to bitch about legitimately or that the information that is out there completely negates their complaints. There is not one VALID complaint anyone can have about this game currently – not “because I disagree with it ;)” but because it’s based on nothing but assumptions and/or “it is not identical to the original” complaints when this is not meant to be identical, and thus saying it’s not is invalidated by the fact the original game is readily available on every platform out there aside the fucking Wii U. Certainly it’s possible this game will end up being shit or even great but completely filled with important stuff forced into priced DLC format, but there is absolutely nothing to feel that’s the case already based on what we’ve seen and what we’ve been told.

This was openly stated by the directors and it’s something I’ve been saying from the start as well; the FF7 remake is not being made to fill your nostalgic needs. It is not being made for you if you just want to “relive your childhood”, that’s what the FF7 ports and re-releases are for. That nostalgia trip you want, that “true experience I had as a kid”, it’s all very much available to you. This, however, is a new adventure in the same world with the same characters and a very similar story for everyone to experience, because anything less would be a genuinely full-on cashgrab and nothing more. This is a real fucking game being made with seemingly real effort, not just polishing up something from nearly 20 years ago. If that somehow offends you then you shouldn’t ever speak your opinions on games to begin with and should stick to Nintendo where innovation and original ideas are shunned and treated as devilish unspeakable ideas because they might remind the player they are no longer 10 years old.

And again, am I saying that absolutely nothing is going to be lazy or done in an attempt for profit and that every facet of this game is going to be amazing? No. I’m saying there is not enough information to justify all the massive complaining going on about this, it’s all a massive and insanely over the top reaction to NOTHING. When SE announces a 6-hour part 1 for $60 with Yuffie as a $10 DLC, then feel free to throw a fucking shitfit. I’ll even join in. There is currently absolutely nothing like that though.

I am not “shilling”, I’m not being an apologist, I’m not a member of the “Square Enix Defense Force”, and I’m not sucking the dick of some corporation – I’m being reasonable, which is all I’m saying everyone else needs to do too. Opinions CAN be wrong, and the way to make them exactly that is by basing them on factually incorrect information or not basing them on ANYTHING to begin with. Bitch when you have facts that are genuinely bad, complain when you have valid issues to do that with instead of baseless assumptions or your nostalgia not being pleased enough because the game doesn’t look like shit anymore, don’t sit here throwing a tantrum over things that they’ve officially stated aren’t true or that there’s absolutely no implications of happening. And hell, actually have points to make aside “it’s shit because I said so” which is what everything I’ve seen amounts to – go ahead and have worries but don’t parade them around as facts without anything backing that up. Not only does all this shit make you look fucking retarded, it also weakens your arguments if those issues do end up coming true because you’re essentially crying wolf at this point.

10 responses to “Thoughts on Recent Final Fantasy 7 Remake News And Reactions”

Also it doesn’t really have much to do with your blog itself but I just started playing FF12 and I have to say you’re spot on about it. The story and characters are fairly interesting if not a little bland, but the gameplay is absolute dogshit, ESPECIALLY the license board which is the worst leveling system in the whole franchise bar none (besides maybe FF2, which I haven’t played but heard a lot about). It amazes me how so many of these other JRPGs that are supposedly “so much better than FF7” really only surpass it in one particular area and are just flat terrible in every other regard.

Will you be doing a retrospective of Final Fantasy like you did with Metal Gear? I’d love to hear your thoughts on the rest of the franchise.

I hadn’t actually thought of doing another thing like I did with MGS for FF, that’s actually a good idea so I’d like to. I’m not sure when though, but I’ll definitely try to get around to it at some point.

My biggest problem there is that I haven’t played ALL of the FF games (even just the main numbered ones I have a few missing from the early games) and there are also ones I just haven’t played in SO LONG that I don’t remember shit, so it wouldn’t be as in depth aside from probably starting around FF6 (which I fucking hate) and forward for the most part. I could do that anyway not like it matters, we’ll see. Maybe I’ll just do something for the “modern” PS1+ titles, I remember all of those pretty well. FF7 especially not only because it’s incredibly good but because I just played it again on the PS4 port last week and it actually holds up amazingly well.

Also at least 12 has Penelo and her butt, it makes up for at least some of the low quality of the rest of it.

I’m not at all surprised by them making it the game more actiony, and I think they did the right thing in all honesty. Times have changed, ATB/turn-based games just aren’t as exciting as they were over a decade ago.

What really worries me are how badly they will desecrate the story and characters all for the sake of being self-important as fuck, like they did in that sad excuse for a movie Advent Children and the rest of the compilation. I’m playing through Crisis Core right now and every time the characters go off on tangents about 2deep4me themes such as “what it means to be a soldier” or “do monsters have dreams and/or honor” etc. it makes me want to shoot myself, and I’m not even exaggerating when I say it happens in literally EVERY SINGLE GODDAMN FUCKING CUTSCENE too. Of course there was much more wrong with Crisis Core (and the rest of the compilation) than just beating you over the head with recurring themes a special needs kindergartner could have come up with, but I digress.

Anyway speaking of overworlds I wouldn’t mind them expanding on Midgar, and being able to explore it at my leisure like I’ve always wanted to. I can understand why you aren’t a fan of them after you explained it in your Tales of Zestiria review, but I’m still hoping they can pull it off here.

Well, I don’t know when the last time you played 7 was, but it always was PRETTY BAD about that, not AS bad as it ended up getting, but a lot of people completely wipe that from their memory somehow. It was always incredibly self-important, “deep”, and would always spend ages talking about the dumbest hippy “save the forest” bullshit and how the planet is aliveeee braaaahhh – and hell there’s an entire story arc about monsters having honor through RedXIII’s backstory, let alone throughout the game.

It certainly got worse, but I just mean keep in mind the original game was still really bad about this too – so if it “shows up” it’s not necessarily them ADDING that, rather just them keeping in line with how badly and stupidly written a lot of it was in the first place.

I’m not saying the original game was flawless, far from it, but its flaws are minuscule compared to what would come with the spin-offs. Strangely enough I don’t remember any of that “monsters having honor or dreams” shit during Red XIII’s story arc, only the truth about what happened to his dad.

Omg, that’s a huge block of text.
I like the idea of new (old) final fantasy games and i’ll support it even if ff7 wasn’t my favourite, (i liked more ff8 and ff9)… because maybe with this remake and probably new sequels, bring a light of hope for something that really matters, (the remake of Chrono trigger)

Yeah, a lot of people hate ffviii maybe because junction system, but i liked it, i liked the story and the music and the card game…
Now about CT, maybe not a remake of that game itself but a remake/reboot of the saga. i loved chrono cross too all the characters, the quests, the Ost was superb (they could benefit from hd graphics). If they are going to make a multilple part game for ff vii, why not a CT game, with radical dreamers, chrono trigger, chrono cross, with a combat style with options, if you want it more fluid, like ni no kuni or if you like to play by turns like the wait option where monsters don’t move until you choose an action.

It was actually VIII’s story and characters which annoyed the shit out of me, the junction system I thought was badly implemented yet still innovative.

And trust me, the last thing you want for your favorite game series is another compilation which would butcher everything you loved about the original game(s). Though some would argue Cross did that to Trigger, I’ve never played Cross so I can’t comment on that.